Recently I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Honduras with an incredible organization called Students Helping Honduras or SHH. For me this trip was quite spontaneous. A couple of my close friends had already been apart of this organization in the previous year, but I never had a strong interest to join until one of them reached out to me personally about the troubles that the Hondurans face on a daily basis. When he told me about the murder rates, the poverty, the intense gang violence, the journeys to the border that never had a happy ending, my heart cried out and I knew I had to join this club. By the second meeting I had already informed my parents of all the expenses that would go into this trip, and surprisingly they were all for it. Soon enough I had signed up, got my passport, bought a plane ticket , and eagerly awaited for the day we would fly to San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

When the day finally arrived I was ecstatic. My best friend was also traveling with me, so we carpooled up to Raleigh, N.C. the night before our flight because there was a brutal winter storm on its way. Unfortunately because of the snow, our flight was delayed and we missed our connecting flight in Miami. I was thankful we were in a decent sized group because we were stranded in Miami for the night, and after hours of long lines and multiple phone calls, we finally settled into a cozy hotel where we all slept soundly. After that tiny bump in the road, we were smooth sailing for the rest of the trip. We got to Honduras a day late, but it had rained the majority of the day anyways since it is their raining season right now.

As a nonprofit organization, the main goal is to build ten schools a year in Honduras, which has been quite successful. The first day of work for us, it rained. Even though we couldn't get a lot of work done, we all made the most out of the rainy day by playing with the children in the village who come with their moms and dads to help us work on the school. By the second day the sun was shining for the rest of the week, and we put in some serious hard work.

Of course we did not complete an entire school in a week, but the next trip that came in during the following week started from where we left off. Being able to work side by side with such remarkable, beautiful people made my heart full. The last day of the trip we spent relaxing on the beach as an organization, and really soaking in our final day together. The friendships I made during that week are some of the most genuine friendships I think I will ever have. The children and families I met, in the village where we worked and the villa where we lived, were the most heart warming people. I left my heart in Honduras because that is where it belongs. I felt so at peace during that one short week where I made friends out of complete strangers and a second home from a place I never thought I would have a desire to travel to. I want to thank Shin Fujiyama for creating such a remarkable organization that changed me as a person for the better.